Thursday, 28 August 2014

KILLING TIME

Tacita
Intesa come from the Casentino Valley, in the province of Arezzo, and
are based in the little town of Subbiano. The band began life in 2012
with a line up featuring Alessandro Granelli (guitar, vocals),
Filippo Colongo (guitar), Daniele Stocchi (keyboards), Thomas Crocini
(bass) and Pasquale Balzano (drums). They were influenced by
seventies prog and hard rock but managed to add a very personal touch
to their original compositions. In 2014 they self-released an
interesting eponymous debut album that sounds fresh and that is
really worth listening to. The beautiful art work by keyboardist Daniele Stocchi
in some way depicts the content of the music and lyrics, focused on
the relationship between nature and science, progress and
environment...

The
excellent opener “Ciutikutown” is a complex track divided into
three parts featuring a space rock atmosphere that perfectly fits the
lyrics. The first one, Robotomia, depicts in music and words a
robot picking up a beautiful, magical rose: it's the flower of life!
In this way the robot breaks free from the chains of science. The
second part, Epifania, describes the mystical rose breathing a
new energy into the robot, its vibrations seem almost talking to him
revealing the mystery of life and dissolving the shadows of the
darkest arcane. The last part, Metamorfia, is a bluesy
instrumental section that describes the transformation of the robot
into a human being.

Tacita Intesa on stage

“Daigo”
is a beautiful, short instrumental track with a melancholic
atmosphere. Try to imagine a ship sailing across the Pacific Ocean,
there are magnificent, breathtaking landscapes in the background and
an impending sense of tragedy in the air... In fact, along with the
following “Valzer della Morte” (Death's Waltz), this piece was
inspired by the story of the Daigo Fukuryū Maru, a Japanese tuna
fishing boat which was exposed to and contaminated by nuclear fallout
from the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear device test on
Bikini Atoll, on March 1, 1954. The music and lyrics of “Valzer
della Morte” depict in a poetical way that disaster conjuring up
invisible lights, a sudden explosion and a cruel, evil flower
stretching out its black petals, a tree of light and the dark fate
looming over the twenty-three men of the crew, victims of the
merciless bomb. Two great tracks!

Next
comes “Portmanteau”, a short, aggressive track with a strong
theatrical approach and a cabaret atmosphere featuring strange,
cryptic lyrics dealing with the necessity of hiding yourself behind a
mask of nonsense and the will to conform the chaos. It leads to the
dreamy “Corona” (Crown) that deals with the harmony between
Heaven and Earth. Here the lyrics describe a glance towards the sky
to admire a beautiful crown of light and clouds, a gift coming from a
lost paradise where ancient gods used to celebrate the poets and look
at men with indulgence.

“Terzo
rigo quarta parola” (Third line fourth word) is another excellent
track where the borders between past and present are blurred and time
stands still. In a new world you can fly high like a golden angel
drawn by a galactic vortex of life that fades into the deep... “I've
killed the god of Time / Tired of trembling...”.

The
surreal “Periodo refrattario” (Refractory period) concludes this
interesting work. It's an instrumental piece divided into six parts
that tries to describe a world dominated by media and consumerism
where people seem to have lost the sense of critical thought. Try to
imagine a strange factory producing heads in series, there are queues
in series... Assembly and welding follow, just before the final
packaging and shipping!

On
the whole, I think that this is a very good album from a very
promising band. You can listen to the complete album and download it
for free, so have a try and if you like it ask the band for the
physical copy!